CHILDREN’S ATTRIBUTION OF BELIEFS ABOUT SIMULATED EMOTIONS

This research examined children’s understanding of the effect of hiding or pretending an emotion on the beliefs of the observer of this emotion. A sample of 337 children from 4 to 12 years of age participated in the study. They were divided into two groups; one involving a deception condition and one a pretend play condition. In the deception tasks, the protagonists intended to deceive other people about their feelings, while in the pretend play tasks, the protagonists pretended an emotion to play with another person. The results support previous findings that 4- and even 6-year-olds have difficulty in understanding the misleading consequences of hiding an emotion. On the other hand, when children attributed beliefs to the observer of a pretend emotion, young children mostly considered the pretend scenario, while older children took the real events into account. The paper discusses when children develop their ability to understand simulated emotions and their possible misleading consequences.